No Place Like Home
by ilovetvalot
Summary: She needed to hear his voice every night. Written for PYOP challenge on Chit Chat on Author's Corner and Kavi Leighanna & Sienna27's TV Prompt Challenge: The X-Files - "Nothing Important Happened Today".


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**No Place Like Home**

**Prompt: The X Files: Nothing Important Happened Today**

**PYOP Prompt: Hotch/Prentiss; Characters A & B call each other every night before going to bed**

Sliding between the cool, crisp sheets of her queen size bed, Emily Prentiss carefully placed her cell phone on the pillow beside her. Glancing at the alarm clock's glowing red numbers on the nightstand at her elbow, she smiled. By her calculations, she had about fifteen minutes. More than enough time to catch her breath, snuggle against the pillows, and simply enjoy the peaceful night.

Nothing important had happened in their world today...no earth shattering events...no dramatic twists. Just life. But a lack of excitement in their mutual lives wouldn't alter their pattern...a pattern that had developed innocently during the days when George Foyet had wreaked havoc on the combined lives of their team.

Now, long months and nerve-racking events later, things weren't quite so innocent...or simple. But there was comfort in the routine...and neither diverged from it often, needing that connection with each other, even if it was across a phone line. Sometimes a voice could share so much in so little time.

Leaning her head against the pillow, she reminded herself, for the tenth time in the past hour alone, that their separation was temporary. And necessary.

The field really wasn't any place for a seven month pregnant woman, she thought, eyeing her ever growing stomach with a critical eye. And while she thought it would have been safe enough to join him on the custodial review he currently worked on, he assured her that if the field was out of the question, a maximum security prison well known for its riots was definitely a no-go.

He was stubborn when he wanted to be…which was quite often.

Oh well…at least she'd had Jack for company tonight. Hotch's son was going to be a wonderful big brother, she thought happily, remembering Jack's expressive face lighting up as they'd put the finishing touches on his soon-to-arrive sister's nursery tonight. He was so much like his father that falling in love with him as deeply as she had his father had occurred almost instantaneously. Now, she was so entwined in his life, many mistook her for his biological mother. And while she knew that Haley would always occupy her son's heart, Emily knew she'd made her own place there as well.

And Jack Hotchner had a place in hers. She had two children…and she was blessed by both.

Smiling as the phone rang by her hand, she answered quickly, fingers at the ready. "You really shouldn't call me this late," she mock whispered by way of greeting, leaning back against the cool pillows. "What will my husband think?"

"That a handsome stranger thinks his wife is almost as hot as he does?" Aaron replied, his deep voice filled with a tinge of humor.

Emily could almost visualize that faint smiling pulling at his lips, his eyes creasing in amusement. "Hmmm...almost?" she teased, drawing out the word. "I need to get a better class of pervert to call me at midnight."

"I seem to recall you being particularly fond of several of my so-called perversions," Hotch chuckled, his deep voice turning into a yawn.

"You sound tired," Emily said sympathetically, her forehead wrinkling as she frowned, worry filling her voice. No matter what her current situation might be, she was still an agent…and she was well aware of the pitfalls that surrounded their profession.

"I'm fine," he replied easily, dismissing her concern like he always did. "What about you, though? Shouldn't you and my future daughter be curled up in our bed asleep?" he asked, his tone lightly admonishing.

"Mother and baby wanted to hear your voice," Emily returned evenly, her hand sliding over her rounded belly. "You know the drill...I don't sleep until you call. And even then, I'm restless. I miss you. We miss you."

"Is that so?"

Eyebrows furrowing, Emily pressed the phone closer to her ear. Did his voice suddenly seem louder? "You know that's so," she replied, closing her eyes as she pulled his pillow closer, hoping for a whiff of his cologne.

"Then isn't it a lucky coincidence that I caught an early flight home?" a deep voice said suddenly from the doorway.

Eyes popping open, Emily struggled to sit up in bed, her jaw dropping as she stared at her husband leaning against the doorframe of their bedroom.

"You're home!"

"I'm home," Hotch grinned, closing his cell phone with a snap and throwing it on the nearby dresser.

"But, I thought..."

"That I wasn't capable of surprising you anymore?" Hotch drawled, arching one dark brow as he grinned widely at his wife. "I still have a few surprises left in me," he said, his long strides eating the distance between the doorway and their bed. Bending to gently steal a kiss from her shocked lips, he whispered, "I learned something while I was away from you this week."

Returning his kiss eagerly, Emily pulled away long enough to whisper, "What was that?"

"That while I love our nightly phone calls, there really is no place like home," Aaron replied sincerely, capturing her lips once again.

And, with that statement, Emily Prentiss Hotchner couldn't have agreed more.

_**Finis**_


End file.
